Coalition cuts are making our streets less safe

posted : August 17, 2013

A properly funded police force is vital to keeping our streets safe but the Government is taking the wrong approach to law and order. Instead of cutting of crime, they are cutting the police. There are already 4,000 fewer police officers on our streets than there were in 2010 and half of London’s police stations are set to close by by 2016. Many of these cuts will be counter productive, leading to more crime and higher costs for the police.

Cutting the number of police on our streets is not the only damage that the Government is doing, they have also taken money away from community projects. As a former community worker myself I know the importance giving young people a place to go and something to do can be, in preventing them from falling in with the wrong crowd.

When I was head of the Halkevi community centre I worked to establish sporting and youth projects projects for teenagers, keeping them out of criminal gangs and helping them to stay in school. Cuts to the Communities and Local Government budgets mean that councils don’t have the funding to support projects like these anymore, meaning vulnerable young people are at risk.

If selected as Labour’s candidate I would make speaking out against cuts which endanger the public a central part of my campaign. You can find out more about my campaign pledges here.